Contributed photo

The San Juan Islands Muse­um of Art shares a look at one of their cur­rent installations.

Artists have a his­to­ry of mak­ing us think about the world around us. Lat­tice II chal­lenges our per­cep­tions and beliefs about the nature of sculp­ture. Hen­ry Jack­son-Spiek­er encour­ages vis­i­tors to use their hands to explore his instal­la­tion at the San Juan Islands Muse­um of Art.

Jack­son-Spiek­er incor­po­rates glass, wood, wire, and dis­parate mate­ri­als to form a blend of trans­par­ent light and shad­ow. He asks the view­er to “reflect on pre­con­ceived notions” of space and the “con­no­ta­tions these spaces can have” in our lives.

Lat­tice II is a soar­ing instal­la­tion in the museum’s light-filled atri­um. It merges dis­tinct­ly con­trast­ing mate­ri­als into a work that explores ten­sion, bal­ance, and reflec­tion. With repeat­ing forms and pat­terns and the use of pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive space, Jackson-Spieker’s ephemer­al instal­la­tions seek to height­en the view­er’s aware­ness of the sur­round­ing environment.

Jack­son-Spiek­er recent­ly com­plet­ed his MFA at New York’s Alfred Uni­ver­si­ty and received his BFA from West­ern Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty in 2013. In addi­tion to the cur­rent sculp­ture at SJIMA, his work is on dis­play at Mid­town Com­mons in Seat­tle and the Belle­vue Art Muse­um. He has had exhi­bi­tions at The Seat­tle Cen­ter, Method Gallery, and Wa Na Wari Gallery. He teach­es glass blow­ing and bronze cast­ing at Pratt Fine Arts Cen­ter in Seat­tle, where he first start­ed work­ing with glass.

In 2021, Jack­son-Spiek­er served as a selec­tion pan­elist for pub­lic art at the Inter­na­tion­al Arrivals Facil­i­ty at SeaT­ac and a juror for the 2022 City Artist program.

Hen­ry Jackson-Spieker’s Lat­tice II, on dis­play until Sept. 12, is spon­sored by the Hon­ey­well Char­i­ta­ble Fund, the Town of Fri­day Har­bor, the Wash­ing­ton State Arts Com­mis­sion, the Nation­al Endow­ment for the Arts, San Juan Coun­ty, KCTS Chan­nel 9, anony­mous, Har­bor Rental, Print­onyx, and Browne’s Home Center.

The Fri­day Har­bor Film Fes­ti­val shares news about their ongo­ing Direc­tor Series.

The Babushkas of Cher­nobyl is the Fri­day Har­bor Film Festival’s next offer­ing in The Direc­tor Series.

This film is a por­trait of a defi­ant com­mu­ni­ty of women who scratch out an exis­tence on some of the most tox­ic land on earth, the radioac­tive “exclu­sion zone” sur­round­ing Chernobyl’s Reac­tor No. 4. While most of their neigh­bors have long since fled, and their hus­bands have grad­u­al­ly died off, this stub­born sis­ter­hood is cling­ing to their ances­tral home­land despite its tox­i­c­i­ty. They share this haunt­ing­ly beau­ti­ful but lethal land­scape with an assort­ment of inter­lop­ers — sci­en­tists, sol­diers, and even ‘stalk­ers’, young thrill-seek­ers who sneak in to pur­sue post-apoc­a­lyp­tic video game-inspired fantasies.

Why the film’s cen­tral char­ac­ters — Han­na Zavoroty­na, Maria Shovku­ta, and Valen­ty­na Ivaniv­na — chose to return after the dis­as­ter, defy­ing the author­i­ties and endan­ger­ing their health, is a remark­able tale about the pull of home, the heal­ing pow­er of shap­ing one’s des­tiny and the sub­jec­tive nature of risk.

Fol­low­ing a free online show­ing tonight from 6:30 to 9 p.m., stream the film on demand from July 29 through Aug. 10 for $1.95.

Fire & Res­cue shares news about their response to a wild­fire that broke out on Mt. Dal­las yes­ter­day afternoon.

San Juan Island Fire and Res­cue respond­ed to a call Wednes­day after­noon about a pos­si­ble wild­fire on Mt. Dal­las. Upon arrival, SJIF&R estab­lished com­mand and com­mu­ni­ca­tions, deploy­ing rapid­ly respond­ing crews to fight an active and creep­ing wild­fire. On-scene con­di­tions were chal­leng­ing due to exten­sive brush and grass growth, with the pre­vail­ing wind push­ing the fire into near­by woodland.

Crews worked in two areas to quick­ly con­tain the fire and pre­vent fur­ther spread. Two struc­tures were poten­tial­ly at risk and were saved. Wash­ing­ton State Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources were noti­fied and sent a fire response heli­copter to assist at the scene. No injuries were reported.

Fire crews will con­tin­ue to work on scene to mon­i­tor and extin­guish hot spots. Res­i­dents should be aware that there will be lin­ger­ing smoke in the area around the west side.

Please remem­ber that fire safe­ty is all of our respon­si­bil­i­ty. As the cur­rent sum­mer heat dries our islands out, please ensure that you are aware that any work or activ­i­ty that can cre­ate a spark is dan­ger­ous for all of us.

Contributed photo

San Juan Coun­ty Health & Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices sends along their request for some help from San Juan Islands artists.

The Health & Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices Depart­ment is get­ting a com­mu­ni­ty well­ness van that will allow us to take our pub­lic health ser­vices to our San Juan Coun­ty com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers where they live, work, and play. The Luci B Com­mu­ni­ty Well­ness Van will be used for immu­niza­tion clin­ics, repro­duc­tive health coun­sel­ing clin­ics, home- and com­mu­ni­ty-vis­it­ing ser­vices, pub­lic health com­mu­ni­ty out­reach and edu­ca­tion work, well­ness and screen­ing events, health and nutri­tion edu­ca­tion events, pub­lic health emer­gency response efforts, and den­tal clinics.

We have named our com­mu­ni­ty well­ness van after Lucin­da Eliz­a­beth Stew­ard Boyce (1835–1916). Lucin­da served as a com­mu­ni­ty leader on San Juan Island and as a role mod­el for hun­dreds of women who braved the stren­u­ous con­di­tions of the island’s ear­ly set­tle­ment years. She arrived on San Juan Island in 1860 and served as a com­pas­sion­ate nurse and mid­wife, deliv­er­ing more than 500 babies and ven­tur­ing out in any weath­er (and to out­er islands) to care for the sick and injured. Endurance, inge­nu­ity, and a rugged phys­i­cal and men­tal dis­po­si­tion were nec­es­sary for set­tler women to sur­vive in the ear­ly days — but Lucin­da didn’t just endure, she thrived. She stepped up and took on the roles of doc­tor, nurse, and mid­wife. Lucin­da admin­is­tered care to all who need­ed it, respond­ing to med­ical calls any time of the night or day — regard­less of the dis­tance or weath­er. She would ride horse­back or dri­ve a bug­gy over harsh ter­rain, pad­dle a canoe, or take a row­boat to Orcas, Shaw, Stu­art, or Wal­dron. Lucin­da was known for her kind­ness and com­pas­sion to all.

We’ve cho­sen to name our new com­mu­ni­ty well­ness van Luci B in hon­or of Lucin­da Boyce. We believe our team of pub­lic health staff car­ry on Lucinda’s mis­sion and embody her deter­mi­na­tion, indomitable spir­it, warmth, joy of liv­ing, and kind­ness for all per­sons — work­ing to over­come all obsta­cles and pro­mote well­ness for those liv­ing in the San Juan Islands.

As you can see from the pho­to, our van does not have a design on the out­side yet. Help us come up with a design con­cept for Luci B by sub­mit­ting a con­test entry now through Sat­ur­day, Aug. 20, 2022 at 5 p.m. Vis­it the well­ness van sec­tion of our web­site for more details and infor­ma­tion on how to sub­mit your entry.

If you have ques­tions, con­tact us by email or call 360–774-9350. All San Juan Coun­ty res­i­dents are invit­ed to apply. Chil­dren under the age of 18 must have par­ent per­mis­sion to sub­mit a con­test entry. The win­ner of the design con­cept con­test will be announced on or after Fri­day, Aug. 26 and will be rec­og­nized for their con­tri­bu­tion to the new com­mu­ni­ty well­ness van project.

• The San Juan Island Library’s Wednes­day after­noon per­for­mance series for chil­dren and fam­i­lies wraps up today with the Cap’n Arrr Pirate Show. It takes place at 1:30 p.m. in the play shed at Fri­day Har­bor Ele­men­tary School.
• Island Rec’s sum­mer Music on the Lawn series con­tin­ues at 6:30 p.m. tonight on the lawn at the San Juan His­tor­i­cal Muse­um. The mem­bers of the band 3D, Tom Hen­ry and Tami Doenges, will per­form folk, rock, and blues cov­ers of music from the 70s through 90s.
• Here’s an arti­cle from 2017 about the Cable Inno­va­tor, the cable repair ship that has been oper­at­ing off the west side of San Juan Island recently.
• Trea­sure Hounds (365 Spring St., Suite C) has many home items list­ed on sale at 20 to 50 per­cent off. They’re open Thurs­day through Sun­day from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• SumX3 are per­form­ing a free con­cert on Sun­day from 5 to 7 p.m. at Madrone Cel­lars & Cider, 40 First St.
• The Friends of the Library’s annu­al sum­mer book sale will take place Sat­ur­day, Aug. 13 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the park­ing lot at 660 Spring St., the future home of the San Juan Island Library. There will be chil­dren’s books, DVDs, audio books, jig­saw puz­zles, and books of every top­ic, size and shape.
• Here are the week’s spe­cials from Mar­ket Place and Kings.

Have some­thing to share with the Island? Whether the news is big or small, let us know!

Tran­si­tion San Juan Island’s Waste Reduc­tion group shares today’s habit shift inspi­ra­tion from the glob­al Plas­tic Free July campaign.

Composting

A sig­nif­i­cant amount of trash and weight found in garbage cans is from every­day food waste. Food waste in land­fills cre­ates methane, one of the worst con­trib­u­tors to cli­mate change. While it’s not elim­i­nat­ing sin­gle-use plas­tics, turn­ing food waste from garbage to com­post is an enor­mous habit shift in the right direction.

You can make a dif­fer­ence right here on San Juan Island. Fed­eri­co Farm is offer­ing a drop-off food com­post­ing pro­gram that uses fer­men­ta­tion to break down food mat­ter. Com­post­ing bins can be pur­chased for a one-time charge of $20 and $5 for a bag of inoc­u­lant that assists in the break­down of food. Once your bin is full, bring it to Fed­eri­co Farm and dump it into the com­post bins. Repeat.